Afternoon rally lifts Irish stocks out of mire

Market Report:AFTERNOON RALLIES do not come much better than the one that lifted Irish financial stocks out of the mire yesterday.

The Iseq index closed up 9.4 per cent on the previous session, as the banking heavyweights all posted sharp climbs in their share prices in the final hours of Friday trading.

After starting the day modestly bumbling along, market sentiment improved rapidly around lunchtime, as expectations grew that next week will bring some clarity on the banks' capital positions.

Bank of Ireland, the bank that has been most affected by capital concerns, surged 41.3 per cent to €2.30, a climb of 67 cent. Anglo Irish Bank recorded a 25.6 per cent jump to €2.50, a rise of 51 cent.

Irish Life Permanent rose by a similar percentage, adding 55 cent to close at €2.70. Finally, AIB managed a 15.3 per cent rise, closing up 56 cent at €4.21.

With some of these stocks having recently seen their share prices suffer one-day declines of similar percentages, investors will have been relatively happy as the session closed.

Elsewhere, there was activity in Ryanair, which reports interim results on Monday, as it was anticipated the airline would lock in the benefits of the low oil price.

A statement by Independent News Media had the potential to be a "double-edged sword", according to one Dublin-based dealer.

But, in the end, positive reaction to the expression of interest in its Australasian media company APN outweighed concerns about a decline in advertising revenues and the stock climbed 28 per cent to €0.64, up 14 cent.

Kingspan fell just 1 cent despite a downgrade to "hold" by stockbrokers Merrion, while CRH overcame concerns about its Ukrainian exposure to benefit from a stronger dollar later in the day.